U.S. EPA Announces Additional Listening Sessions and Extended Public Comment Period for Intended Repeal of the Clean Power Plan

On February 1, 2018, an EPA notice was published in the Federal Register regarding the agency’s proposed repeal of the Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units (EGUs), commonly known as the Clean Power Plan. The EPA stated that it received numerous requests for additional opportunities for the public to provide oral testimony in more than one location. Therefore, the EPA is reopening the public comment period on the proposed Clean Power Plan repeal and it will hold an additional three listening sessions in three different locations.

The Clean Power Plan was adopted by the EPA on October 23, 2015 under the Obama Administration. The EPA published its proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan in the Federal Register on October 16, 2017, consistent with President Trump’s March 28, 2017 Executive Order, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth.” Public hearings on the proposed repeal were held on November 28 and 29, 2017 in Charleston, West Virginia and the public comment period, originally slated to end on December 15, 2017, ended on January 16, 2018 after a one-month extension.

The three additional listening sessions announced by the EPA will be held on the following dates at the identified locations:

February 21, 2018, in Kansas City, Missouri,

February 28, 2018, in San Francisco, California, and

March 27, 2018, in Gillette, Wyoming.

Comments on the proposed repeal will be accepted through April 26, 2018.